The George Polk Awards in Journalism were established in 1949 by Long Island University to recognize excellence in print and electronic journalism. Professor Greenberger was also interviewed extensively in the film "American Casino,” a critically-acclaimed documentary that chronicles predatory lending and the subprime mortgage crisis from Wall Street to Main Street, which was co-produced and directed by Leslie Cockburn.

"[Michael] Greenberger, a talented explainer, charts the development of more and more complicated and preposterous instruments, ending with credit-default swaps ... His passionate exposition gives us the strongest emotional release we get from the material," said film critic David Denby of The New Yorker.

Professor Greenberger is a former director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and an expert on financial regulation and complex financial derivatives.